Another New 50,000 Watt Bay Area AM Station

According to today's Daily Digest, the FCC has approved KNTS/1220's construction permit to boost its power to 50,000 watts day and night:

KNTS Construction Permit Authorization

The transmitter site will be near the end of West Winton Avenue in Hayward, along the Bay shore north of the San Mateo Bridge approach. (This site is also listed in the construction permit for KFAX/1100's new site; KFAX and KNTS are co-owned by Salem.)

The new KNTS site is north of KFAX's current transmitter site, and south of KTCT/1050's current site, which are both referenced in the new construction permit:

Prior to construction of the tower authorized herein, permittee shall notify AM Station KTCT and KFAX so that, if necessary that AM station: may determine operating power by a method described in Section 73.51(a)(1) or (d), and/or request temporary authority from the Commission in Washington, D.C. to operate with parameters at variance in order to maintain monitoring point field strengths within authorized limits. Permittee shall be responsible for installation and continued maintenance of detuning apparatus necessary to prevent adverse effects upon the radiation pattern of the AM station.

KNTS began its life in 1949 as the 250-watt Palo Alto daytimer known as KIBE. It became KDFC in 1984, KBPA in 1997, KBZS in 1999, KSFB in 2001 and KNTS in 2004. It currently broadcasts with 5000 watts during daytime and a mighty 147 watts at night, and will remain licensed to Palo Alto despite its new transmitter plant on the eastern shore.

DOTS & DASHES — Hopefully unrelated, Part One: the Oakland A's are still looking for a warm body to fill the second seat alongside newly-minted #1 voice Ken Korach. Part Two: the St. Louis Cardinals have dismissed the underwhelming Wayne Hagin as their #1 radio voice, meaning he'll be sending out his tape to prospective employers. Note to the A's: you could do no better than giving Doug Greenwald (son of Hank) his first big-league job...

Here's another clue for you all: in the guessing game about where the A's radiocasts will be heard next season, my $1 bet has been on CBS/Infinity's KYCY/1550, perhaps in combination with co-owned KIFR/106.9. Making me feel better about going so far out on a limb with my hard-earned cash is the announcement that Marty Lurie will be hosting "Inside Baseball: The Winter Edition" on KYCY beginning next Friday (Nov. 25). Lurie, who had previously hosted "Right Off The Bat" and "Memories Of The Game" before A's broadcasts on dearly departed 610/KFRC, will have both Korach and Shooty Babbitt as regular guests on the new show...

Ralph Edwards, who began his radio career at Oakland's KROW in 1929 when he was only 16 years old, died on November 16 in West Hollywood at the age of 92. Mr. Edwards returned to KROW after graduating from Cal and went on to work as an announcer, writer and producer at KFRC in San Francisco. In a broadcasting career that spanned seventy years, he became a network radio announcer for both NBC and CBS in New York, and created the landmark game show "Truth or Consequences" in 1940. The program, which began on radio and later migrated successfully to television, was the first in a string of popular shows Mr. Edwards launched, including "This Is Your Life," "Name That Tune," "Superior Court" and "The People's Court."